Pavel Macek wrote:My Chinese (speaking) friends, please help. I am looking for WW2 "Big Swords Unit" (大刀隊) motto that they (according to Draeger/Smith) wore as a patch on their uniform:When we fight, we fit use bullets; When the bullets are gone we use bayonets;When the bayonets are dull, we use the rifle barrel;When it is broken, we use our fists;When our fists are broken, we bite.

Can anybody verify this and find the Chinese characters? Much appreciated!

What I was told about the big broadsword unit is that they were a special forces unitThe reason they used broadswords is so they could infiltrate Japanese camps at night and kill as many as possible without noise and escape before the alarm was raisedIt is said Huang hsein hsein was a memberHe developed his own broadsword set which is a melding of the yang and Wu sets I learnedJust one other thing on the broadswordI learned FMA with some of the best because I wasn't sure how practical my yang style set wasIf is the same sequence as the one most do but done quite differentlyI think that was due to the fact some of our teachers were WW2 veterans Thing I found out was that it is as strong as any Phillipineo art even though it doesn't have the same amount of two man stuff

actually "Sabre Unit" was a name given to them by an admiring public using the unit's most prominent weapon.the official army unit designation is 29军手枪队 or 29th Army Pistol Unitthis is due to material " challenges" at the timei am not sure that it is correct to say they were active in WW2 and i do not think they officially wore any such patches

Just myself thinking, that unit can not have been Sabres only weapon of course the must have been weaponised with firearms otherwise would been silly. There where Japanese sword bearing soldiers, so to have a sword handy just in case could be a good idea.......just thinking, not an expert on history

Trick from what I heard the name didn't come from a lack of other weaponsIt was the fact that if they took the Japanese on they would be our gunned so they attacked their camp in the dead of nightIf they used guns they would wake up the entire camp and be out numberedSo they went in with sword and struck in silence and disappeared into the night

wayne hansen wrote:Trick from what I heard the name didn't come from a lack of other weaponsIt was the fact that if they took the Japanese on they would be our gunned so they attacked their camp in the dead of nightIf they used guns they would wake up the entire camp and be out numberedSo they went in with sword and struck in silence and disappeared into the night

Ok, but after they sliced down the whole Japanese camp they would have had a lot of guns

heh hehmy teacher told me that he understands that one of the tactics used isto mount a sneak attack in the middle of the nightthe men from the sabre unit would go in without their shirts and upper body smeared with oilthey would then sweep their way throughout the enemy camp.those they feel with clothes on would be chop downoily skin also made it difficult to catch them, easy to slip away into the night